WHAT'S NEXT
For the Fretting Pet Owner,
A Wireless Distress Signal
By ANNE EISENBERG
July 15, 2004
IN the Walt Disney film ''The Incredible Journey,'' two dogs and a cat
are finally reunited with their owners after a long and dangerous
cross-country trip.
For many pets, there is no such happy Hollywood ending. In the United
States, only a small percentage of animals separated from their owners
are reunited, according to the American Humane Association.
But wireless technology may one day provide some help both for animals
and the humans who cherish them, whether the pets have strayed across
town or across the border.
In one emerging technology, owners can keep track of their dogs by way
of miniaturized Global Positioning System receivers and mobile modems
attached to the dogs' collars.
''If the pet leaves the yard, you'll get a call on your cellphone,
P.D.A., or any other two-way wireless device,'' said Jennifer Durst,
chief executive of GPS Tracks in Oyster Bay, N.Y., which has devised a
G.P.S.-based system called the Global Pet Finder.
Ms. Durst said the system would be on the market by the end of the year
and would fit dogs of all sizes except toy breeds. The receiver will
cost about $300 and there will be a monthly ''monitoring fee'' of about
$13, she said.
''Cats will be next year,'' she said, ''in version 2.''
People who use the new system can set the boundaries for their dogs at
a Web site or on the miniaturized device itself, specifying how far
their pets can roam. It might be a backyard, Ms. Durst said, or, if
both owner and pet are on vacation, a section of a beach, perhaps, or
the area around a motel.
Software checks the pet's position constantly, she said. When it passes
the default boundaries, an automatic alert is triggered and owners
receive a text message. ''It will say, 'Your pet has left' and send the
exact location,'' Ms. Durst said. Locations will be identified by
street name and number or, for certain cellphones, by maps.
''In rural areas with no street signs, you will be given directions
from where you are,'' Ms. Durst said. The G.P.S. receiver calculates
the position, and the coordinates are translated into a readable
position.
The system is designed for any area covered by a G.S.M. cellphone
network. Prominent in Europe and Asia, G.S.M. networks are becoming
more common in the United States, where they are used by T-Mobile and
some other providers.
Another application of wireless technology may help reunite pets with
their owners even when the animals are in another country.
Implanted microchip transponders have been used for years in the United
States and elsewhere to identify dogs, cats and other pets. The tags
include a glass-encased microchip with a unique identification number
that cannot be altered but can be read by a low-frequency radio
scanner. The number is then matched to a database to find the pet's
owner.
The problem has been that the American and overseas systems are
incompatible. So some organizations in the United States that maintain
identification databases are switching to the international system in
the hope of one day linking American pets and owners to a global
database.
The use of microchips has increased steadily, said Sue Richey, who
directs the American Kennel Club's Companion Animal Recovery program.
The program keeps a national database in Raleigh, N.C., in which people
can enroll their microchipped or tattooed pets. ''We're getting 55,000
to 70,000 animals a month,'' she said, ''with a live recovery every
eight minutes 24/7.''
Right now, most pet microchips and scanners used in the United States
operate on a radio frequency of 125 kilohertz. But the chips used in
much of the rest of the world operate at an international standard of
134.2 kilohertz, Ms. Richey said.
That disparity can lead to problems when, for example, an American
loses a pet while traveling in a foreign country. ''Their scanners
can't read our chips,'' said John Snyder, director of companion animals
for the Humane Society of the United States, in Washington.
Several groups have already begun using the 134.2 kilohertz chip,
including the Oregon Humane Society in Portland, which started
implanting them in January, said Sharon Harmon, executive director of
the society.
But many shelters do not have scanners that can read the new chips.
''It's not a good thing if we don't have the scanners in place,'' Mr.
Snyder said, ''because animals are being missed.''
Scanners that can read both kinds of chips will be needed, said Jodi
Buckman, director of animal programs for the American Humane
Association in Denver. ''It's a mistake to have a technology used only
in the U.S.,'' she said. ''One worldwide standard will provide the
ultimate protection for pets.''
Pet chips of the future may be different in other ways, too. For one
thing, they may be updatable. At this point information on the
microchips cannot be changed, meaning that new developments in a
medical history, for example, can't be added.
But Walt Ingwersen, a veterinarian in Whitby, Ontario, who has served
as chairman of the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association's microchip
committee, said that smarter, read-write chips are on the way. Dr.
Ingwersen is now a member of a technical committee that is developing
international standards for the advanced transponders. ''The animal's
ID number will remain the same on the chip,'' he said, ''but the
contents will be updatable.''
Sue Sternberg, a shelter owner and dog trainer in Accord, N.Y., said
she welcomed G.P.S.-based tracking devices and implanted microchips.
''We get a dog sometimes and we know it is a beloved pet that has
traveled a long distance,'' she said. ''In that case, a microchip would
be a great thing.''
Norma Bennett Woolf, editor of Dog Owner's Guide, an online magazine,
agreed. ''Too many owners are heartbroken at the loss of their pets,''
she said. ''Technology has a lot of potential here to get dogs home to
their families.''
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